The pinkette barely manages to dodge the chidori attack that could have ended her life. She grits her teeth, brows frowning as the pinkette, as a faithful leaf ninja, concludes that there is no way to avoid this encounter.

She rolls to the side, dodging the sword that landed right where her head was just mere milliseconds ago.

"Aren't you going to fight me?!" The man before her yells, his calm façade quickly disappearing into an inhumane, hungry look in his eye, as if he wants to kill her in the worst way possible. The pinkette gulps, knowing that this man is beyond saving. "Fine! Then I'll destroy you by tearing a chidori through your heart and slash your arms off with my kusanagi."

"Ha. 'It's a bad idea to tell the enemy your plans. They will be able to come up with a counter-attack.' You told me that once, Sasuke-kun." The pinkette replies, clenching her fists.

"Hn." The raven responds, getting into a fighting stance. The pinkette does as well, while simultaneously sending chakra to her forehead in hopes to unlock the byakagou, which she knows she needs to win the fight.

The fight between lovers.

Yes, Sasuke has denied her affections, but deep down, even right now in his eyes, the pinkette sees the last little bit of sanity in his eyes, a slight reluctance to attack her.

All that is gone in an instant.

The raven, with surprising speed, rushes forward. The pinkette jumps over the raven as he swings down; she twists in the air and kicks him square in the back. He slams into the tree. The pinkette slips on her gloves and runs at the raven with alarming speed. The raven rolls to the side as the pinkette slams the tree where he was mere seconds ago. Sasuke activates his sharinigan in an attempt to memorize her every move. Sakura, seeing his bright red eyes, stands still.

"What're you-" The raven's eyes widen slightly as he glances upwards and dives forwards to avoid the pinkette's powerful kick, which leaves a large crater in the earth. "You almost got me there." He says.

"Stop dodging and come at me for real! If you're truly that evil, you'll have no trouble disregarding previous memories and kill me! Or better yet. I'll just kill you so you won't live in one big, giant lie!" Sakura yells, and Sasuke's onyx eyes darken even darker, a shadow covering his face.

"Chidori!" He yells, running towards her.

"I'll take the blame with me! All the evil deeds you've done, whatever you feel towards me, will follow me. Sasuke, I will shoulder your burdens because-" The chidori impales her chest, and the raven's face is mere inches from her own- "because, I love you."

"You're foolish, Sakura." Sasuke says, pulling his bloodied hand from her chest. "You're foolish to have fallen for a guy like me." The raven glances at her once more before turning his back and walking further into the darkness.

<•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•>

ALTERNATE ENDING

"You're foolish, Sakura." Sasuke says, pulling his bloodied hand from her chest. "You're foolish to have fallen for a guy like me." The raven glances at her once more before turning his back and slowly walking away.

Suddenly, the raven stumbles to the ground, eyes wide. "W-w-what did I do? D-did I really just-" an image of a younger, innocent, kind Sakura crosses his vision and he clutches his heart. Tears fall, slowly at first, as he realizes that he just killed the only one who was there for him when others were not.

Behind him, a small, purple diamond forms on the pinkette's forehead, and her wounds begin healing.

After a few minutes, the raven shakes his head to get rid of the painful memories. "I-I can't... I really did that... I'm awful, I'm-"

"Hey, it's all right." A pair of arms wrap around him from behind, and the raven's eyes widen.

"Sak-"

"Sshhhh.... I'm here, Sasuke-kun. And I'm not leaving."